Mech Souls, and then some.
Billing itself as a “Hardcore Action RPG,” developer Deck 13 assimilates the difficult and labyrinthine style of games like Bloodborne and Dark Souls, and adds its own unique flavor to deliver a challenging and fun - though a bit disjointed - sci-fi survival adventure.
You’ll spend the lengthy campaign in an exo-suit exploring a series of locations that check all the trademark boxes of a near-future industrial zone. Some of these environments clearly adhere to the Big Industrial Facility Rulebook, in that all maintenance shafts must look alike, but the majority of each area has its own unique style and a creative layout for it’s circuitous pathways. The vibrant color palette provides an interesting contrast to the horror of the events taking place within, and despite a few late-game jitters both the areas and action looks great on PC and really good on PS4 or Xbox One.
The main story is a fairly predictable excuse for clomping from spot to spot. There are some cool moments early on that lay the groundwork some potentially interesting character development, but those are quickly forgotten as it wades through several classic science-fiction tropes. I was able to follow along in broad strokes: “This thing is gonna happen and it’s BAD,” “Here’s a solution to the bad thing, let’s go get it” - but specific details are hazy, especially towards the end. It’s not that I wasn’t paying attention, but a lot of it was either glossed over completely or presented as background noise. A character may be giving a pointed speech about the hubris of mankind, but I’m too busy trying to avoid being clubbed to death by cyborgs to let it fully sink in. It also doesn't help that what truly interesting moments there are take upwards of 10 to 15 hours of exploration and grinding to reach – though the story does become significantly more intriguing (and convoluted) in the second half.
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Details like this really help flesh out the world.
But, as excuses for lumbering around in an exo-suit go, it accomplishes what it sets out to by giving you a decent amount to do. In addition to a few side tasks for NPCs in each area, The Surge does a really good job of letting you discover information in the world around you. There are a bunch of detailed and well-acted audiologs and some great environmental storytelling as well. Anti-suicide warnings are posted on bridges in production areas while screens blast chipper PR nonsense about the “corporate family” nearby, or you’ll find a pair of bodies huddled close together in the back of a maintenance tunnel. Small design details like this really help flesh out the world, which makes it kind of strange that things get so confusing in the main story.
The Surge’s gameplay follows the now-familiar formula of letting you collect as much XP and scrap as you dare while battling various robots, zombified coworkers, and bosses before you cash it in and level up, but if you get killed you’ll lose whatever resources you had on you. Returning from Deck 13’s last game, Lords of the Fallen, are a multiplier mechanic that increases your earnings with each kill and resets if you deposit your scrap or die, and a post-resurrection countdown timer that eliminates your earnings if you take too long to retrieve them. They’re interesting inclusions that dramatically raise the stakes, heightening both the exhilaration of success and the maddening frustration of failing to recover large amounts of XP.
Where The Surge really excels, however, is in its combat encounters. The fights might not be the most brutally challenging I’ve ever played, but cutting through a group of enemies is still satisfying. Enemies aren't particularly smart, which is fine for zombies and drones, but the lack of any self-preservation instinct feels especially out of place when tackling late-game human foes. Still, they all still require a deft hand to counter, dodge, and to generally avoid being murdered by. It’s a solid balance of strategic offense and defense and borderline-arcadey hack & slash action that, while campaign’s story lost the ability to motivate me five or 10 hours before I finished it, I found the combat itself enjoyable right up through the end.
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Where The Surge really excels is in its combat encounters.
The most interesting part is the dismemberment system, which not only finishes off opponents in grisly cinematic fashion but also lets you harvest new gear for your exo-suit. Picking which body parts to attack in order to harvest new items adds a cool tactical dimension to fights: what parts do I need to build this item? Is it worth risking the huge pile of scrap I’m carrying to get them? The novelty of each animation may have worn off after a while, but seeing the cue for an execution pop up was consistently satisfying and, on occasion, provided a few much-needed seconds of respite during a stressful fight against multiple opponents.
When you do manage to hack off enough arms or bisect enough torsos to build yourself some shiny new gear, expect to spend a fair amount of time agonizing over which of your recycled outfits to don. Each piece of armor grants buffs against various types of damage (as well as boosting other stats), and since you take these pieces directly from your enemies, you’re able to analyze their strengths and weaknesses accordingly. Can’t get past that armored guy with the big hammer? Well, it looks like the helmet I tore off his buddy is weak against elemental damage, so why not light him on fire or knock him into that toxic waste over there? It’s a simple system, but it does a good job of encouraging you to constantly experiment with the different items in your inventory, especially when coupled with the multitude of bonus-granting implants I could install as I leveled up.
The weapon designs are similarly interesting, from a set of dual-wielded forklift arms repurposed as makeshift blades to a massive two-handed hydraulic press-turned-warhammer, but I didn’t see much use in switching between them. I found one that worked for me and my character build early on and upgraded it often, so it was always the most powerful thing in my inventory. Aside from a few finds at the very end, everything else was obsolete before I even picked it up. It was a shame, because while I’d definitely experiment with different weapons in New Game + – which so far seems to be an increase in enemy damage output with a few new beasties peppered in – but in my first playthrough it felt like using anything else was giving myself an unnecessary handicap.
The Verdict
The Surge makes good use of its detailed sci-fi setting and provides an engaging experience throughout the 30 to 40-hour campaign, mostly thanks to its widely customizable inventory and wickedly fun combat system. It may struggle to keep the action moving and tell a strong story amid the chaos of battle, and its weapon progression plateaued early, but it offers some interesting ideas and delivers a solid new take on a familiar genre.
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